Bastar Saga: After 62 years, the film being made in Abujhmad, the story of Bastar Saga is very special, see glimpse

Raipur. Himanshu Sharma: Abujhmad of Bastar is known all over the world for its mysterious tribal culture. This is the same area which is also a stronghold of Naxalites in India. It is said that there are so many dense forests in the foothills of the hill of Abujhmad that even the sunlight does not reach the bottom.

Many areas of this Abujhmad are still virgin land till which no person from outside world has reached. The Madia tribals living here are very conscious of their culture. Something happened here twenty years ago, after which the tribals had banned the entry of any outsider and photography or film shooting.

This restriction was removed by the tribals recently. After this positive effort, now after 62 years, the film ‘Bastar Saga’ has been shot here, which focuses on the story of the world’s most backward tribal group, the Madia family. Some scenes of this film were yet to be shot but due to coronavirus infection, its shooting was halted for about one and a half years. Now the final round of work on this film is going on.

Earlier in the year 1957, Oscar-winning filmmaker Arne Saksdorf shot a Swedish-language film based on the story of Tiger boy Chendru. After a long gap of 6 decades, now a film has been made in Abujhmadh.

In the era of globalization, when all kinds of resources are in the cities, how is the life of people in a resourceless remote village, it has been shown in this film. The entire story of the film is based on the demand of a child’s chicken. All the chickens of the village die due to the disease called Ruhu.

In such a situation, the child of a family expresses a desire to eat a rooster. In front of the neighbor’s house a rooster remains alive. The neighbor now makes his chicken fight with other chickens every day and brings the chicken to his house after winning.

The neighbor cooks and eats chicken every day and the child of the front family demands chicken from his father every day. It is with this story that a journey of the father of the child begins. This is a unique story which completely depicts the real life of Abujhmad.

The 90-minute film, focusing on the Madia culture, features local tribals and children from the Ramakrishna Ashram Vidyalaya in Narayanpur in different roles. This is the first full-length commercial film on the culture of Abujhmad. Made in Mudia language with English transcription, the film will be screened at film festivals in different countries for a year.

The disappearing things of the Madia culture have been preserved in this film. The film has been shot at locations like Chitrakot, Farasgaon, Tirathgarh. All the artists working in it are local. Only the heroine of the film Prajakta Wade is from Mumbai.

The film is directed by Amol Choudhary who lives in Mumbai. The script of the film has been done by Raj Banjare, a resident of Nandgaon. The 90-minute film takes the audience on a unique journey into the unresolved-mystery Abujhmarh. Sonu Nayak, a resident of Pansara village in Farasgaon, Budhsinh Mandavi of Narayanpur has worked in film production to create locally produced crops, properties and costumes.

The art direction of this film is also amazing and such things related to tribal culture have been used in it which are rare now. Many local people including Jugal Vadde, Somesh Patra, Lahro, Gokul Patra, Jugnu Netam, Masiya Aanchala, Jai Singh Markam have played their roles as seasoned actors in this film. Many villagers of Munjmeta and Kulanar have been seen in this film.

Bindi Irwin • Trouble In The Jungle